(Newser)
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Parent of the Year Award goes to the New Jersey mom who's in court facing a charge of taking her 5-year-old daughter into a stand-up tanning booth, where authorities say the girl suffered burns. Patricia Krentcil is charged with child endangerment. She calls the accusation "a lie," and tells the AP her daughter got sunburned by being outside on a recent warm day.

She says her daughter, however, had mentioned to school officials when she complained of itching that she had been to a tanning salon with her mother. Police in Nutley told The Record newspaper they were called to the child's school April 24 because she was in pain from a "pretty severe sunburn." Krentcil's own skin is deeply bronze-colored from regular salon visits. New Jersey law prohibits anyone under 14 from using tanning salons.

She looks like 56 or 57. Here in Florida you don't see a lot of women tanned like that, everyone puts on spf 5000. At about 35 the skin wrinkles up like leather. She wants us to believe that her daughter got sunburned in the middle of April, in Jersey? Down here, yes. A little girl can burn up in a half hour. Not in Jersey. That Salon is in deep shit too. But this crazy woman (and her Lawyer) is going to blame them somehow. God forbid she take any responsibility.

slammer

May 3, 2012 9:52 PM CDT

PATRICIA KRENTCIL IS A REAL NUT RUBBER ROOM FOR SURE! TANNING SALON? SHUT IT DOWN ASAP OWNER IN SLAM FOR AT LEAST 5YEARS, WITH A STAND UP TANNING BOOTH USED ON HIM AT LEAST 5HOURS A DAY!

GeminiMishy

May 3, 2012 7:53 AM CDT

When I first saw this pic, I thought it was another blackface story. Strangely, this is way more horrifying.